The idea that football is a working-class sport is a historical myth. In fact, the struggle for the ball during the Weimar years was initially frowned upon as bourgeois within the workers' movement. The game was said to promote competition and selfishness. Stars were bullied. Frustrated and lured by the bourgeois German Football Association (DFB), they often left the football division of the Workers', Gymnastics, and Sports Movement (ATSB). The attempt to play football in a socialist manner had long since failed. What were the reasons that political views and the character of the game were incompatible? In his study, Lars Geiges examines the ideology, the operation of the game, and the structure of the ATSB through workers' sports newspapers and compares them with the supposedly apolitical DFB. The causes of the ATSB's failure become apparent.